The Pigna Vaticana is one of the highlights of any visit to the Vatican Museums! The pinecone is one of the vanishingly few antique bronzes to have survived since antiquity and was once the centerpiece of a large fountain featured in the Sanctuary of Isis & Serapis in the Campus Martius.

Of equally ancient origin are the two bronze peacocks flanking the pinecone. Both are replicas of the original bronzes which once adorned the second century Mausoleum of Hadrian. Together, the pinecone and the peacocks comprise the central ensemble of the Cortile della Pigna, or, Courtyard of the Pinecone, at the Vatican Museums.

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